I was in downtown E.L. the other day and it became apparent to me that Ann Street is the street that will feel and look the most changed. From the street, the frontage on Grand River is going to have a similar look with the brick and glass facade so that walking by you won't really see the taller part of the building. On Ann, you can't miss it. It is going to fill the sky, with this building and the next development they are going to create a "big city" feeling on Ann Street.
Well, I was talking about the view from street level looking at the new building going up now. I was waiting for the Flyer bus at the hotel looking at the construction's progress and it looks to me like the sun will be behind the building soon after 12 pm each day which will cast a shadow across Ann and Albert Streets, this would be a big change from today. I may have used Ann Street when I should have said, Albert. I grew up in Lansing and I still can not get EL's streets right!
This is major news. The city desperately needs a movie theater and more "anchor" tenants downtown that will attract people. This also adds some much needed new office space to the downtown as well as more residential.
I think this will hit a couple snags though (reasonable or unreasonable):
Complaints about this being too large (Unreasonable IMO)
Enough people were surprised that Center City would market only to students that this will face negative consequences
People wanting to keep traffic off of Evergreen. It looks like the parking for the movie theaters will have its entrance off of Evergreen. I think they will need to reconfigure the intersection at Evergreen and Valley Ct to dissuade people from driving through the neighborhood.
Also, if they really want to break ground by March 2019, then I can't imagine them asking for any public money. The hold up might be the city wanting more money for the Evergreen properties than Vlahakis is willing to pay.
I like the automated parking as it requires less space, apparently. This really fills in the gap. Also, Dublin Square is in a beautiful old building. I'd really like it if they'd try to work around it or incorporated it into the development. I'll have to take a look at the plans to see how the site plan is for this site.
Actually, I'm wondering if this is related to the Evergreen properties I brought up some weeks ago?
He's calling his development Park Place. Close enough to be confusing I agree. I think the idea is that this part of downtown would be called the Park District though.
lol, brain far. I kept reading it as "Park District."
Okay, so after reading the article more closely, I am better able to orient myself. The theater/parking/apartment building (Park Place II) would be on the site of the students rentals at 314, 328, 334, and 340-344 Evergreen. The retail/office/condo building (Park Place I) would be on at Abbot & Albert and include the site of where Dublin Square now stands. Still can't orient myself on the Park Place II rendering, though. Are we looking northwest along the Albert?
Anyway, I hope the city seriously considers this one. The Vlahakis family is not some fly-by-night developer with pie-in-the-sky dreams. They are a prominent local developer with deep roots here capable of something like this.
I'm actually a bit jealous looking over here from Lansing. In a strange way, East Lansing has been helped by the fact that they've owned the land or parts of it that are part of Center City and Park District. I imagine a big problem with landing anything big in downtown Lansing, lately, is that most of the underdeveloped land is owned by real estate speculators, some of them prominent real estate developers, themselves. We're still not at the level in this region where developers are going to be willing to spend and arm-and-a-leg on land. Everything along Grand Avenue, for instance, should be getting all kinds of proposals for redvelopment.
Wow, I think this could be a good development for the Greater Lansing area as I am trying to think about all the developments going on just outside the city limits. I believe that most folks who do not live here call the whole place Lansing.
There must be a market for all these apartments and it does seems like that part of EL will sure have a lot of people living in a small area but I think that this is the higher urban density that they have been looking for all these years. I wish they could keep the old PO building although I had the worst fish and chips of my life at Dublin Sq. they could lose that place!
Yeah that's looking north west along Evergreen. The sky bridge would connect to Park Place I.
The old post office building which is now Dublin Square is pretty nice. It might not be realistic but it would be great to move it across the street and put it on the City Hall surface parking lot along Abbot Road. The parking ramp behind HopCat should be big enough to absorb the lost spots.
Comments
I was in downtown E.L. the other day and it became apparent to me that Ann Street is the street that will feel and look the most changed. From the street, the frontage on Grand River is going to have a similar look with the brick and glass facade so that walking by you won't really see the taller part of the building. On Ann, you can't miss it. It is going to fill the sky, with this building and the next development they are going to create a "big city" feeling on Ann Street.
Are you talking about Albert Street (Ann Street Plaza area)? Which development are you talking about?
Well, I was talking about the view from street level looking at the new building going up now. I was waiting for the Flyer bus at the hotel looking at the construction's progress and it looks to me like the sun will be behind the building soon after 12 pm each day which will cast a shadow across Ann and Albert Streets, this would be a big change from today. I may have used Ann Street when I should have said, Albert. I grew up in Lansing and I still can not get EL's streets right!
This is major news. The city desperately needs a movie theater and more "anchor" tenants downtown that will attract people. This also adds some much needed new office space to the downtown as well as more residential.
I think this will hit a couple snags though (reasonable or unreasonable):
Also, if they really want to break ground by March 2019, then I can't imagine them asking for any public money. The hold up might be the city wanting more money for the Evergreen properties than Vlahakis is willing to pay.
Wow, this seems to have come out of nowhere.
I like the automated parking as it requires less space, apparently. This really fills in the gap. Also, Dublin Square is in a beautiful old building. I'd really like it if they'd try to work around it or incorporated it into the development. I'll have to take a look at the plans to see how the site plan is for this site.
Actually, I'm wondering if this is related to the Evergreen properties I brought up some weeks ago?
lol, brain far. I kept reading it as "Park District."
Okay, so after reading the article more closely, I am better able to orient myself. The theater/parking/apartment building (Park Place II) would be on the site of the students rentals at 314, 328, 334, and 340-344 Evergreen. The retail/office/condo building (Park Place I) would be on at Abbot & Albert and include the site of where Dublin Square now stands. Still can't orient myself on the Park Place II rendering, though. Are we looking northwest along the Albert?
Anyway, I hope the city seriously considers this one. The Vlahakis family is not some fly-by-night developer with pie-in-the-sky dreams. They are a prominent local developer with deep roots here capable of something like this.
I'm actually a bit jealous looking over here from Lansing. In a strange way, East Lansing has been helped by the fact that they've owned the land or parts of it that are part of Center City and Park District. I imagine a big problem with landing anything big in downtown Lansing, lately, is that most of the underdeveloped land is owned by real estate speculators, some of them prominent real estate developers, themselves. We're still not at the level in this region where developers are going to be willing to spend and arm-and-a-leg on land. Everything along Grand Avenue, for instance, should be getting all kinds of proposals for redvelopment.
Wow, I think this could be a good development for the Greater Lansing area as I am trying to think about all the developments going on just outside the city limits. I believe that most folks who do not live here call the whole place Lansing.
There must be a market for all these apartments and it does seems like that part of EL will sure have a lot of people living in a small area but I think that this is the higher urban density that they have been looking for all these years. I wish they could keep the old PO building although I had the worst fish and chips of my life at Dublin Sq. they could lose that place!
The old post office building which is now Dublin Square is pretty nice. It might not be realistic but it would be great to move it across the street and put it on the City Hall surface parking lot along Abbot Road. The parking ramp behind HopCat should be big enough to absorb the lost spots.